Little local love for license plan

Wednesday

Oct 31, 2007 at 12:01 AMOct 31, 2007 at 2:56 PM

The area’s two Republican Congressional representatives — Jim Walsh of Onondaga and Randy Kuhl of Hammondsport — lost little time in making their displeasure known regarding the agreement between Gov. Eliot Spitzer and the Department of Homeland Security to offer a three-tiered system of New York state driver’s licenses.

Staff reports

The area’s two Republican Congressional representatives — Jim Walsh of Onondaga and Randy Kuhl of Hammondsport — lost little time in making their displeasure known regarding the agreement between Gov. Eliot Spitzer and the Department of Homeland Security to offer a three-tiered system of New York state driver’s licenses.

The measure provides licenses with three levels of identification: One would be as secure as a passport and allow travel to Canada and Mexico, one good enough for domestic air travel, and a third would be made available to illegal immigrants but couldn’t be used for air travel.

“The unwieldy agreement ... represents three new layers of bureaucratic red tape for New Yorkers,” said Walsh, whose district includes Wayne County. “Never mind that travelers will still need to obtain a passport to journey outside of the Western Hemisphere.”

Kuhl, whose district includes almost all of Ontario County, all of Yates County and the southeastern part of Monroe County, issued a statement saying the policy is “fatally flawed.”

“I am saddened that the Bush administration would agree to this dangerous and potentially destructive plan,” said Kuhl. “We should not be giving any type of license to those who broke the law by entering this country illegally.”

New York’s two senators, Democrats Charles Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton, have not commented on the revised license plan. It replaces an earlier Spitzer proposal — which drew vast political and public criticism — that also would have made licenses available to illegal immigrants.

Walsh thinks Spitzer should go back to the drawing board yet again, with the benefit of public input.

“It’s time the citizens of New York were consulted before any more decisions are made,” he said.

That’s a sentiment shared by state Sen. Michael Nozzolio, who says he’ll be among those joining a public hearing next Wednesday to review the plan.

“Next week’s hearing will allow us to discuss this issue in a public forum and will allow needed questions to be answered,” said the Fayette-based Republican, whose district includes parts of Ontario County and the Monroe County town of Webster.

Kuhl said the new plan may be prohibitively expensive and would undermine security efforts. He urged both the state and Homeland Security to scrap the policy.

“We need real legislation that strengthens our borders and does not diminish our national security by granting more privileges to those who have entered this country,” he said.